Chris Johnson has an OPS of .726 in about 1600 minor league PAs over 4 seasons. He projects to walk less than Tejada at this level. Tommy Manzella has a an OPS of .695 in about 2100 minor league PAs over 5 seasons. He may end up being worse than Adam Everett, offensively.
Wandy will need to average 4.1 IP over his last 4 starts to hit 200 IP for the first time in his career. Odds are highly in his favor but anything can happen. Plus, 200 is just a number.
I thought that was a widely accepted fact. Even with the 2008 draft, we have a looooooooong way to go.
To be fair, Johnson fixed something in his stance around the All-Star break this season. It's allowed him to see the ball better. All of his numbers went up since then...including OBP... Pre All-Star - 55 games, .272 avg, 4 hr, 16 rbi, 7 bb, 50 k, .297 OBP, .411 slg (.706 OPS) Post All Star - 49 games, .291 avg, 9 hr, 26 rbi, 14 bb (Tejada has 17 walks all season), 40 k, .350 OBP, .516 slg (.866 OPS) While he's not exactly setting the world on fire with his walk rate, it's much improved over the first half. If what he changed sticks, he projects to be a much better option at 3B than anything we have now.
^^ Yea, that's true. I read he closed his stance and tweaked his swing. Hopefully, it will bring around enough improvement for him to be effective at this level. Even if he and Manzella are both subpar hitters, given our payroll situation, I'd strongly consider letting them take over the left side of the infield, accepting the offensive downgrade, and spending whatever money is available this offseason on upgrading the starting rotation.
It's a weak crop of FA pitching, especially SP. Who would you pick up? Marquis? Penny? Harden? Bedard? Even mediocre or injury-prone guys will be getting big dollars. http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2001/05/2010-free-agents.html
I wonder how much of this shellacking is due to his back. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/6610998.html
Berkman is 1st in walks per plate appearance in all of baseball: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sort/walksPerPlateAppearance/type/sabermetric/order/true Tejada is 2nd to last: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sort/walksPerPlateAppearance/type/sabermetric/order/false According to this measurement, Berkman, not Lee, has been our most valuable hitter this season (sort by Batting): http://www.fangraphs.com/winss.aspx?team=Astros&pos=all&stats=bat&qual=0&type=6&season=2009&month=0 It must be the tremendous walk rate. Lee is 2nd. Kaz is last. Not surprisingly, Bourn has been our most valuable overall position player: http://www.fangraphs.com/winss.aspx?team=Astros&pos=all&stats=bat&qual=0&type=6&season=2009&month=0 Z brought this stuff up in his blog today: http://blogs.chron.com/unofficialscorer/2009/09/astros_pm_report_optimist_or_p_1.html
Unbelievable. Miggy with his 3rd GIDP of the night, each one came with the Astros making some kind of rally. This time it was game-ending. Edit: If I just heard correctly, that is a new club record. Ouch. Pitchers know he is among the most prone to swing out of the strike zone. My guess is that it's fairly easy for them to tempt him with borderline pitches.
If Tejada is back next year for any reason, I hope they don't use him in the 2-hole on a regular basis like they did this season. It just makes no sense even with our limited options. Nothing about his hitting abilities at this point in his career is ideal for any of the top 5 spots in the order to be honest.
What a game for the offense to show up in. Where were those runs for Wandy and Paulino? Oswalt sucked, and we give up 3 more runs using pitchers that have no business in the majors. I've decided that I don't want Miggy back next year. The GIDPs, the questionable defense, the lack of walks, getting another year older, and the fact that he will want more than $3 million has worn me out.
who got the would-be game winning hit for the Tigers yesterday, but for the Tigers pitching blowing up. i loved me some AE.
